The fifth season of Lost ended, literally, with a bang, leaving obsessives more wildly speculative than ever about what the sixth one holds in store. Aside from drawing comparisons to season one and promising the introduction of a new narrative device, the show’s producers have kept a tight lid on all upcoming plot points, having yet to release any new stills or footage. That’s left bloggers scrambling to look backward and forward for any bit of information that might be a key to predicting the new season. “Reboot” is the word of choice among fan-theorists, with consensus saying the bomb’s detonation prevents the plane from ever crashing on the island in the future. Another hint suggesting a reboot? The premiere’s title is “LA X,” which some have assumed means the flight from Sydney successfully lands in Los Angeles. What else does the hive mind of the Internet think lies ahead?
• After some business about how Sting’s songs can help explain the series, crazy genius Doc Jensen posits that this season, like every other, will hinge on the relationship between parent and child. Only this time it’s going to be Jack and his drunk daddy, Christian. [EW]
• The final season will reveal the full extent to which the characters have been living pawns in a game played between Jacob and the Man in Black. Meanwhile, “flash sideways” could be the new storytelling gimmick, showing the audience glimpses of a world in which Oceanic 815 never crashed. [UGO]
• Despite the ever-widening scope of the story throughout the series, season six will cause a “riot” if it’s all about the game being played between Jacob and his opponent. The show began with a small-scale story, and it should end that way. [Zap2It]
• Thanks to a hint in an episode of Flash Forward (an Oceanic billboard touting a “perfect safety record”), it’s safe to assume that the crash has been averted. [TV Squad]
• The plane crash is still going to happen, but it won’t be on the island. A lot of passengers will die (as they would have anyway), but somehow the characters we’ve come to know will be rescued. [Magic Lamp]
• Whether or not the plane crashes, they’re all going to end up back on that island somehow. And when they do, they’re going to have memories of what happened before, enabling them to “relive” all of the events we’ve already seen and take advantage of their knowledge. [BuddyTV]
• Similar to what we’ve seen with Desmond, the characters are going to experience a type of memory download that brings them together after they safely land in L.A., which will of course cause them to go back to the island. [Incident]
• And now for something completely different: Ben remembers everything from his childhood (being shot by Sayid, operated on by Juliet, taken to the Others by Kate, etc.). Every word he’s said, and every decision he’s made has been with the knowledge that these people were the key to him becoming the leader of the Others one day, a position he needs to preserve in the time loop. This could be the biggest revelation of the season. [EYE M SICK]
